Gorham native Mackenzie Holmes is back with the WNBA team that drafted her. It wasn’t an easy road to get there.
Holmes signed a free agent deal with the Seattle Storm earlier this week, and played in her first WNBA regular season game Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Sparks.
She played five minutes for the Storm Tuesday night, nabbing one rebound and going 0-1 from the floor.
The Storm drafted Holmes 26th overall in the 2024 draft but she underwent knee surgery and sat out the 2024 campaign. She returned to the court during the preseason and played in one exhibition game before being waived on May 13.
But a roster spot came open when the Storm traded center Li Yueru to the Dallas Wings for a pair of draft choices this week.
Even before Holmes had been waived, her WNBA journey had its challenges as she worked to get healthy.
“I’d be lying if I said it was easy,” Holmes told 247Sports on May 5. “I’ve had surgery before but not anything like this. So it just takes a certain amount of discipline. You don’t see results every day. Just continuing to stay the course and knowing that something really great could be on the other side. Just trusting that if it’s meant to be, God will make it happen. After that surgery, I just kept that in the back of my mind.”
Holmes’ father Lenny was on his way to Los Angeles for that game Tuesday and said in a text message that it is a “dream come true” for her to sign with the Storm.
“As a family, we are just incredibly happy for her, that all the hard work she has gone through is paying off,” he said.
He said there was a “lot of apprehension and worries” after his daughter’s major knee surgery.
“However the signing brought a real sense of relief and fulfillment,” he said.
In her only preseason game for the Storm on May 4, Holmes scored nine points on 4-for-5 shooting from the floor and she also grabbed eight rebounds and blocked three shots.
Her Gorham High School coach, Laughn Berthiaume, watched that preseason game and said on Tuesday that Holmes did “all the things I’ve seen her do for a long time” like blocking shots, rebounding and scoring efficiently.
“I felt like there is a spot for her somewhere and she needs the right opportunity, and I’m hoping this is the one for her to be able to get in and really be consistent and show what she can do,” Berthiaume added.
Holmes told 247Sports that this is “probably the healthiest I’ve been in a really long time. It’s great not to have to worry about my knee and just go out there and play basketball, do what I love to do.”
She said in that early May interview that she’s willing to “do preventative things in rehab and all of the extra things” in order to play and feel healthy.
Holmes spent last season as a graduate manager at her alma mater, Indiana, while rehabbing her knee.
She also said working with the Indiana team last season gave her the opportunity to see the game “from a different view and that has definitely helped me as a player.”
The 6-foot-3 Holmes graduated as the school’s all-time leader in points scored (2,530), field goals (1,043), shooting percentage (63.9) and wins (123). She was second in blocked shots (258) and games played (147); third in double-doubles (26) and points per game (17.2) and fourth in rebounds (990) and three throw attempts (595). She was fifth in free throws made (434).
The Storm’s record improved to 7-5 after Tuesday night’s win.
